Brewers’ early lead slips away in 7-4 loss to Rangers

Box Score

Although the Brewers struck first in this one, they weren’t able to hold on for the sweep. Milwaukee dropped Sunday’s series finale with the Rangers by a score of 7-4 as Dustin May continued to struggle with his command and the Brewers’ offense couldn’t generate enough firepower to overcome the deficit.

May opened the top of the first by striking out Joc Pederson, but Corey Seager singled on the first pitch he saw to give the Rangers a runner on first. May got Wyatt Langford to pop out to first baseman Jake Bauers for the second out, but couldn’t get Brandon Nimmo for the third, walking him to put two on with two out.

Up next was Ezequiel Duran, who swung at the first pitch — a cutter down the middle — and hit a line drive into right field that fell harmlessly into the glove of Sal Frelick for the third out.

In the bottom of the first, the Brewers immediately mounted a rally of their own against Rangers starter Kumar Rocker. Brice Turang began the frame by taking a batter pitch clock violation, then worked an eight-pitch walk. Rocker couldn’t retire Garrett Mitchell, either, as Mitchell lined a low fastball into left field for a single. Up next was Jake Bauers, who ripped a hard ground ball into right field to score Turang, followed by Jackson Chourio, who singled into left to score Mitchell.

With runners on first and second and still nobody out, Rocker managed to bear down and retire Christian Yelich, Gary Sánchez, and Sal Frelick to escape the inning with only two runs allowed. Milwaukee wouldn’t be able to hold the lead for long, however. With two outs in the second, May allowed back-to-back doubles, the second a ground-rule double off the bat of Elias Díaz, to bring the Rangers within a run. In the third, he allowed a solo homer to Duran that tied the game at two.

Rocker ended up keeping the Brewers scoreless for the rest of his start, but that isn’t saying much. After getting rocked in the first — ultimately needing 35 pitches just to get back into the dugout — he was only able to make it through three innings. Rocker did rack up seven strikeouts, but he also walked four batters and was already sitting at 86 pitches by the time his afternoon was over.

Despite allowing a second double to Díaz in the fourth, May kept the game tied going into the fifth, when he would ultimately lose his command. He walked Corey Seager on five pitches, two of them not even close, then walked Wyatt Langford on seven. Even with May clearly looking like he was starting to fall apart, Brewers manager Pat Murphy elected to leave him in the game with Duran coming to the plate to see if he could escape the jam.

He couldn’t. May hung a sweeper above the zone, and Duran crushed it for a ground-rule double, already the Rangers’ second of the game. Both Seager and Langford scored to give Texas a 4-2 lead, one it wouldn’t relinquish.

Texas would go on to tack on three more insurance runs against the Brewers’ bullpen thanks to a Pederson homer off Grant Anderson in the sixth and a pair of run-scoring singles off Bryse Wilson in the seventh.

After Rocker’s exit, a collection of relievers — Alexander, Adam Macko, Jordan Montgomery, Jakob Junis, and closer Jacob Latz — combined to hold the Brewers to just three hits over the rest of the game.

Milwaukee did get two runs back in the bottom of the seventh thanks to Gary Sánchez’s 200th career home run, but that would be it for the Brewers’ offense, bringing the game to its final score: Rangers 7, Brewers 4.

Even after today’s loss, the Brewers still take two out of three from the Rangers and retain the best record in baseball. They’ll now head down to Chicago for a four-game set against the division-rival Cubs. Kyle Harrison is set to go for tomorrow’s series opener, while the Cubs have yet to announce a starter.